ROCHESTER, NY — Just days after his first concerts as music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, internationally renowned conductor Yuri Temirkanov comes to the Eastman School of Music for a guest appearance with the Eastman Philharmonia.
Temirkanov will conduct Eastman’s premier student orchestra at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, in the Eastman Theatre, 60 Gibbs St. The program features Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and MussorgskyÕs Pictures at an Exhibition. Tickets, $10 (free to students and University of Rochester ID holders), are available at Ticket Express, 100 East Ave. (585-222-5000).
“We’re very pleased that our students will have the opportunity to work with a conductor of Maestro Temirkanov’s stature,” said James Undercofler, director of the Eastman School of Music, “and we’re deeply appreciative of his generosity in making time for a visit to Rochester.”
Praise for Temirkanov is widespread. Violin virtuoso Isaac Stern called Temirkanov “one of the great gifts to music in our time.” Ballet star Mikhail Baryshnikov described him as “one of the truly inspired maestros of today.”
In his new post with the Baltimore Symphony, Temirkanov follows David Zinman, former music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. The 61-year-old Temirkanov continues as music director of the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic and principal guest conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is conductor laureate of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Much in demand as a guest conductor, Temirkanov has led the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, l’Orchestre de Paris, and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw as well as the orchestras of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland and San Francisco.
Born in the Caucasus city of Nal’chik, Temirkanov studied violin and viola at the Leningrad School for Talented Children and went on to study conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating in 1965.
In 1966, he became a conductor with the Maly Opera and Ballet Theatre in Leningrad, and won the prestigious Moscow National Conducting Competition in 1967. He was immediately invited by conductor Kiril Kondrashin to tour the United States with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and legendary violinist David Oistrakh.
Temirkanov became principal conductor of the Leningrad Symphony Orchestra in 1968 and remained there until his appointment as music director of the Kirov Opera and Ballet in 1976. In 1988, he began a long-term exclusive relationship with BMG/RCA recording labels. He has recorded extensively with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and he has toured Asia, Europe, South America and the United States with the latter group.
Temirkanov’s appointment with the Baltimore Symphony was announced in October 1997; his first concerts as music director take place Jan. 20 and 22 in Baltimor’s Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.
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